Boozt has reached one million members in its Club Boozt customer club across the Nordic countries in less than a year. Co-founder and CCO Peter G. Jørgensen explains that a strong focus on organic sign-ups has been the driving force.

“One just has to pinch oneself a little and acknowledge that it’s well done.”

That’s the sentiment from co-founder and Group CCO at Boozt, Peter G. Jørgensen, after Boozt reached one million members in its customer club, Club Boozt, across the Nordic countries in just 230 days – largely organically.

“95 percent have come organically through customers who have shopped with us or have come through our own channels. With the Boozt app, we have direct access to customers, and that may mean even fewer marketing dollars need to be spent over time,” says Peter G. Jørgensen.

Club Boozt was launched on June 20, 2023, and it was on February 5 that it reached one million – which means that since its launch, the digital department store has been able to attract an average of 4,348 new club members per day.

“I see it a bit like a Kinder Egg, because it’s due to the fact that we have the developers, the goods, and our own internal marketing machine,” says Peter G. Jørgensen, giving his overall explanation of how Boozt has reached the million-member mark in just over half a year.

Boozt has a team of around 200 developers as well as an internal creative agency – Brand and Visual Communications. Both are based at the company’s headquarters in Malmö.

“If we hadn’t had that, I think it would have taken between three and four years to get here. If we had to do it with external partners – and be as flexible as we are – then… I’m not sure that would have been possible. It would certainly have been an uphill battle and cost the equivalent of a fighter jet,” says Peter G. Jørgensen, adding:

“So it has been a clear advantage.“

Sign-up relocation gave a boost

Another important, and more technical, factor that Peter G. Jørgensen believes has been one of the keys – in fact, the primary driver – for the many memberships of the customer club, is a different and simpler approach to sign-up.

“We experimented a lot in the beginning to get the sign-up part as high on the page as possible. But after we moved it down as part of the checkout and after checkout, there has been a sign-up boost of another world, which we saw in Q3 and Q4,” says the CCO, adding:

“In that context, we have also worked on making the information about the club shorter and more precise. So instead of dragging on about what the club can do for you, we’ve just said that this and that are part of the club. So you could say we’ve done a learning-by-doing education of the customer regarding what Club Boozt can be used for.”

“A reverse Robin Hood”

The time in Club Boozt’s relatively short lifespan when it gained the most new members was during Black Week and Black Friday, which according to Peter G. Jørgensen emphasizes that new club members are especially found among buyers.

The best day for Boozt’s membership club was Black Friday itself, where 27,000 customers joined Club Boozt, which in total gained 132,000 new members during Black Week.

One of Boozt’s effective strategies for getting people to sign up, according to Peter G. Jørgensen, is called “a reverse Robin Hood.”

“It’s with an opposite sign in relation to the principle of taking from the rich and giving to the poor. We’ve turned it around and instead say that we actually prefer to give even more to our very best customers who have been loyal for a long time. So the club rewards loyalty, which makes a lot of sense and has an effect.”

An example of what Peter G. Jørgensen offers is that if you become a member of Club Boozt, you get points on your club account for the items you purchased 12 months before becoming a member, which you can use to activate club benefits – so-called ‘Boozters’ – which can personalize the customer’s shopping experience, for example with discounts, access to presales, and faster packaging.

“So we give the customer personal benefits from the start based on the amount of money they’ve spent previously. So customers experience benefits from the beginning that they can use to tailor their membership,” he says.

Women and “loyal” in the club

Now, it’s only about a quarter of the million, 233,000, of your Club Boozt members who are Danish. How good are 233,000 Danish members in 230 days?

“Well, I think it’s incredibly good. I set an anchor, saying that we should reach a million across markets before we’ve been in operation for a year. And with 233,000, I think Denmark is doing really, really well. It may be because historically we’ve been more into this club mindset than other countries, and also because we’ve built up a strong and increasingly well-known brand.”

Regarding which segment of customers is most prominent among the first million members, Peter G. Jørgensen says:

“When we look at who has joined the club, we can see that we’ve managed to get the good and loyal customers in. We can also see that women are ahead of men and make up 70 percent of the members.”

“And otherwise, we can see that Club Boozt members buy much more often and spend about 100 kroner more in Average Order Value than our general customer base,” he adds.

Will double up in 2024

According to Peter G. Jørgensen, Boozt has over 3.5 million “active” customers annually across the company’s markets, and he and the company have set the goal of “doubling up” and reaching two million members in 2024.

But if the club is so good, why not convert all 3 million customers into Club Boozt members?

“That’s a good question. But there are some customers who just google a product and come in to buy once. But I would really like us to reach a setup where we actually could recruit over 50 percent of our customer base, so that means we have to move from 30 to 50 percent of our customers being in Club Boozt.”

How will you do that?

“To add another million in a year, that’s a lot. And we can’t sign up existing returning customers again. So we need to reach another part of the 3 million active customers, which may grow to 4 million in the meantime. So there’s no doubt that it’s a big challenge,” says Peter G. Jørgensen.

“We’ve taken well over 30 percent of the active base in a year. We can expand that to up to 75 or 80 percent in the long run. So even though I said 50 percent before, it actually needs to go higher. But fortunately, there’s plenty to pick from in the coming years.“